Field of the Invention
The field of the invention relates to a system for reagent bottle docking.
Brief Description of the Related Art
Automatic analyzer systems in clinical diagnostics have to be supplied with different liquids to run biochemical processes and/or have to be loaded with operating fluids for integrated technical devices.
The liquids are usually provided in consumable bottles or containers to the analyzer systems, depending on their consumption, expiry or storability. The consumable bottles or containers must be loaded to various locations on the system, depending on the set-up of the respective analyzer system. The user has to replace them in due time to avoid, that they run empty. The empty bottles have to be disposed by the user.
The reagent containers have to be adapted to the specific needs of the reagents in terms of reagent expiry, storability or shelf life in warehouse. Further aspects that have to be taken into account for packaging of liquids are transportation as well as on board stability during use of the liquids in the analyser. The container must provide sufficient protection for the respective liquid from environmental influences like light, air, ambient gases and evaporation.
Typically analyzer systems need more than one type of reagents and therefore various liquids have to be stored and connected to the system. Very often there are at least two types of containers on a single analyzer system:                a. Containers that must be connected to tubings or couplings in order to provide the reagent “indirectly” via tubings to various modules in the analyzer system, and        b. Containers that must provide their content “directly” to modules, i.e. modules that need to have access to reagents from above, like Pipettor modules.        
It is important to have a clear and explicit user guiding in order to load the containers correctly due to the variety of reagent containers, loading procedures and their possible location on the system. If identical or similar containers must be loaded onto a system, the shapes of the containers or couplings will have to be different to prevent misconnection.
Nevertheless the user has to be very cautious when connecting containers and couplings. Even the use of different containers and couplings to prevent misconnection does not exclude the risk that the liquid paths can get in contact with each other, which resembles the worst case scenario that can lead to a complete contamination of the liquid system, parts of the analyzer system or the user himself.
Shelf life and on board stability of the reagents are very often compromised, because the container and its interface design focus more on the core functionalities of the liquid system and hardware interface of the container in order to reliably provide the liquid to the analyzer. For example, to empty air tight containers there are usually holes for pressure compensation where air/environmental gases or light can get in touch with the reagent. As a hole or cut-out is a simple and reasonable approach to the problem it is commonly accepted that reagent expiry is compromised. Pressure compensation with inert gases or other technical solutions would lead to higher analyzer and running costs, compromise design space and reliability of the analyzer.
The analyzer's liquid system has to be regularly checked and maintained. Therefore commonly cleaning fluids are used to rinse the tubings and components in the liquid paths. Usually the cleaning fluid is provided in one container to the system. The cleaning fluid coming from this container has to be switched over with a valve to the liquid paths that are to be cleaned. Or the cleaning fluid has to be provided in various containers or coupling adapters are necessary to connect to different liquid paths of the analyzer system.
A common requirement for process control in analyzer systems is that the presence of a loaded container needs to be detected. Additionally, more detailed information of the loaded reagent may be necessary for the system. This information is stored in bar codes or RFID-tags that are located on the containers. Often the user must read the information manually with a hand-held barcode scanner.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,665,315 A discloses an analyzer comprising a single box for the distribution of reagents and which is removable from, and connectable to, the said analyzer, the said box containing a plurality of flexible, retractable bags filled with reagent and a flexible bag for collecting the residues. The box is places on a horizontal supporting plate which slides along the side of the apparatus and which is mounted on springs. Upwardly orientated fixed metallic needles pass through orifices in the supporting plate
In U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/022631 A1 a sample container is described, that includes a cap that covers a container body holding a liquid sample containing a reagent and a test body. The cap includes an outer lid that covers the container body, an inner lid that is slidably attached to the outer lid and has an opening for dispensing the liquid sample, a shutter that has a shaft engaging with the inner lid, a translating unit that is fitted to the outer lid and translates sliding movements of the inner lid against the outer lid to rotation of the shutter around the shaft, and a pressing member that presses the shutter in a direction to close the shutter. The rotation of the shutter opens and closes a hole formed in the translating unit for dispensing the liquid sample.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0170532 A1 teaches a reagent vessel cap including a sealing member for sealing the opening of a vessel body; an pressurizing member linked to a retaining part for sealing the sealing member, for bringing the sealing member in close contact with the opening all the time, wherein when pressure is applied, the pressurizing member lifts the sealing member against the biasing force of itself to open the vessel and, when the pressure is eliminated, the pressurizing member returns to position by the biasing force to close the vessel by the sealing member; and a cap body capable of mounting the sealing member and the pressurizing member to the opening of the vessel body containing a reagent. The reagent is collected using the cap structure.
Various types of container with different shapes and/or couplings may be necessary to comply with the analyzer's architecture and differentiation to prevent misconnection, which may be based on:                Conflicts of the used container or bottle with the reagent distributor who ideally only wants to fill a single container type and size in order to run his filling line efficiently and to keep costs for logistics and stock keeping low.        Limitations on reagent shelf life and on board stability.        Pressure compensation has to be balanced against interaction of the reagent containers with surrounding gases: If certain reagents get in contact with air/environmental gases this may have a negative effect on reagent expiry and evaporation. In consequence sophisticated measures, i.e. pressure compensation with inert gases will have to be additionally installed on the system or the reagents will have to be replaced more often. This leads to additional user-interaction, higher system and running costs and may compromise assay performance and stability.        The reagents must be protected from light in a light surrounded area of the analyzer to extend lifetime while they have to be provided at the same time to modules that need a rather large cut-out in the reagent container to access the reagent. The same applies for couplings with transparent components or tubings that work like a light guide.        Limitations on user-friendliness:                    i. Risk of misconnection if identical couplings have to be used: Is very often the case for ‘A-B’ continuous loading concepts where at least two identical containers have to be connected to the system.            ii. The user has to be familiar with various kinds of loading procedures in one system.            iii. The user must be very cautious during reagent loading to prevent contamination of the liquid system due to wrongly connected containers and/or insufficient coupling interfaces that may prevent malconnection but do not fully prevent that the liquid interfaces can get in contact with each other and/or contaminate the user himself.            iv. Manual identification procedures like scanning barcodes with hand-held devices leave a potential risk of manipulation and analyzer failures.                        One container with liquid to clean/rinse each path of the system's liquid tubings cannot be directly used as a replacement for all reagent containers. This means that various containers with cleaning fluid and/or coupling adapters are necessary        